Political Roundtable Part XXVIII

[Zonkerbl]

I'm going to volunteer to be a pollworker. Just gotta take a purell bath afterwards

[dckingsfan]

I'm going to volunteer to be a pollworker. Just gotta take a purell bath afterwards

I think this is a bad idea... but if you do - at least 4 N95 or KN95 masks that you can cycle through and a couple of pairs of sealed glasses. Having a box of gloves would help... and purell pump next to you after you touch anything someone else has touched. Doing purell on your skin that many times stinks but on gloves, not so bad.

[dobrojim]

Alright, here's a positive post:

If you don't vote because you think your vote doesn't count, have you considered doing more than voting? There's lots to do. You can be a poll worker. You can help drive old folks to the polls. You can volunteer for your local representative. You can go to your local ANC meetings.

You are as politically empowered as you permit yourself to be. Think of it as a fun hobby that also might save the world.

Kind of like that saying from the Dalai Lama: "If you have time, meditate for one hour per day. If you don't have the time, meditate more."

This - those that are young and feel invincible - now is the time...

I'm neither young nor invincible but I sent an inquiry of interest to the Board of Elections.
If they contact me, I will consider working for them. DCKs admonitions not withstanding.

[dobrojim]

in an effort to be positive I'll share this from my FB (authored by Erick Moore)

Pay it Forward oughta like this too. I liked DP a lot before. I like her even more now.
What a great example.

In 1990, the high school dropout rate for Dolly Parton's hometown of Sevierville Tennessee was at 34% (Research shows that most kids make up their minds in fifth/sixth grade not to graduate). That year, all fifth and sixth graders from Sevierville were invited by Parton to attend an assembly at Dollywood. They were asked to pick a buddy, and if both students completed high school, Dolly Parton would personally hand them each a $500 check on their graduation day. As a result, the dropout rate for those classes fell to 6%, and has generally retained that average to this day.

Shortly after the success of The Buddy Program, Parton learned in dealing with teachers from the school district that problems in education often begin during first grade when kids are at different developmental levels. That year The Dollywood Foundation paid the salaries for additional teachers assistants in every first grade class for the next 2 years, under the agreement that if the program worked, the school system would effectively adopt and fund the program after the trial period.

During the same period, Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995: The idea being that children from her rural hometown and low-income families often start school at a disadvantage and as a result, will be unfairly compared to their peers for the rest of their lives, effectively encouraging them not to pursue higher education. The objective of the Imagination library was that every child in Sevier County would receive one book, every month, mailed and addressed to the child, from the day they were born until the day they started kindergarten, 100% free of charge. What began as a hometown initiative now serves children in all 50 states, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, mailing thousands of free books to children around the world monthly.

On March 1, 2018 Parton donated her 100 millionth book at the Library of Congress: a copy of "Coat of Many Colors" dedicated to her father, who never learned to read or write.

[pancakes3]

more delusional poll results re Republicans

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republicans-economy-coronavirus-opinion-poll-cbs-news-battleground-tracker/

[Zonkerbl]

more delusional poll results re Republicans

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republicans-economy-coronavirus-opinion-poll-cbs-news-battleground-tracker/

One of the most difficult issues in statistical and economic analysis is compositional change. You can get results like this that look quite frightening - until you look at the trend of people who self identify as Republican over time.

Trump has made it very clear that if you do not agree with him you are an enemy of the people. And so by extension you are definitely not a Republican. So only the people who buy Trump and Fox News' talking points self identify as Republican, so of course they are going to repeat those talking points when asked about them in a poll. The real question here is how many voters identify as Republican now compared to 2018 or 2016, a key question that, in an epic example of statistical malpractice, this article ignores entirely.

Due to our hyperpartisanship, party affiliation stays pretty constant. Nevertheless, it is interesting that the number of survey respondants who identified as Republican was 33% in February 2020 (the highest it's been since November 2016), before Trump started to bungle the COVID crisis, and stands at 26% in July. Democrat affiliation over the same time started at 26% and is now at 31%. Now, a lot of the variation we observe is probably just statistical noise, so take these small changes with a grain of salt, but I find it interesting nevertheless.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx

As far as independents go, I still say - this is your mess. You want people to pay attention to you, make better decisions.

[dobrojim]

Should we take any solace in the 25% of Republicans who believe that we
are worse off? Even in the face of a Himalayan mountain range of evidence,
they are often resistant to such apostasy.

Only 35% overall think we're better off. And IIRC, the right track:wrong track
polling is about 3:1 wrong to right. Obviously not a good place if you're an incumbent

[Pointgod]

No comments on the walls closing in on the Trump organization and their blatantly fraudulent activities?

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[Pointgod]

The Evangelical movement shows themselves to be massive hyprocrites yet again. First supporting a god damn cheating, philandering, rapist like Donald Trump, now this....

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Can someone find daoneandonly only tell me again how the right is morally superior?

[FAH1223]

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[Wizardspride]

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[dobrojim]

As per Jonathon Capehart this morning, the statement by the McCloskys last night about
people deserving to be safe apparently and in the minds of the GOP faithful, doesn't
apply unless you're White.

[dckingsfan]

As far as independents go, I still say - this is your mess. You want people to pay attention to you, make better decisions.

I hate this post - mostly because you are right. I am just hoping they get it right this time...

[Zonkerbl]

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Repeating lies over and over again until everyone watching Fox News believes them is how Fox News works. No reason to expect it not to work now.

Yeah and sure buddy, people are voting for Trump because of his "policies."

[Pointgod]

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Repeating lies over and over again until everyone watching Fox News believes them is how Fox News works. No reason to expect it not to work now.

Yeah and sure buddy, people are voting for Trump because of his "policies."

I agree that the Democratic convention didn’t go into details on policy but I don’t get this analysis from the Bernie supporting left. Lies do not equal policies. The Republican Party doesn’t even have a 2020 platform, just
continue to praise the dear leader Donald Trump.

Democrats had a strategy to use the convention to build a bigger base. The line that hits this home is when Biden said he won’t be a Democratic President he’ll be an American president. There was policy from numerous speakers if you were paying attention.

[Ruzious]

Well, the Republicans do have a policy to lower taxes for the wealthy. I think they've made that very clear.

You can hear the cult-like speeches - hailing/heiling their lord Trump - king of the greatest country in the world. The MAGAmillions are such an oppressed group of white racist xenophobes - desperately finding the few women and blacks they can to speak for them in between Trump family members. Didn't Nikki Haley quit for a reason? Funny that Susan Collins wasn't asked to speak. This isn't about the Republican party; it's about the Trump brand - period.

[Zonkerbl]

Despite his refusal to take responsibility for doing his job, Trump is in fact responsible for many thousands of people dying from COVID. But how many? Now he might have shut down the entire country immediately and stopped the whole thing in its tracks, but I think that's unreasonable - I don't think HRC would have done that.

You could argue that every single death is his responsibility because he dismantled Obama's pandemic working group basically for no reason other than spite. How much that would have changed things is impossible to say, unfortunately. I suppose if you just want to blame every single death on him you could go with that, but I'm not comfortable with it.

Arguably any mistake Gov Cuomo made, Trump is off the hook for. So all the deaths in the Northeast we have to chalk up to something that would have happened anyway, minus a few deaths that resulted from the Trumps seizing control of PPEs and auctioning them off to the highest bidder, which wasn't where they were actually needed.

I think the new hump that's emerged is arguably Trump's fault, although I don't know what's going on in California. I guess every death that's occurred outside of New England is a good approximate number to use for deaths that are indisputably Trump's fault.

[dckingsfan]

Even one week... then add on the masking problem. Saying it will go away so folks don't take it seriously. My guess is that "just" 120K are on Trump's unfettered idiocy.

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/21/860077940/u-s-could-have-saved-36-000-lives-if-social-distancing-started-1-week-earlier-st

[Ruzious]

Despite his refusal to take responsibility for doing his job, Trump is in fact responsible for many thousands of people dying from COVID. But how many? Now he might have shut down the entire country immediately and stopped the whole thing in its tracks, but I think that's unreasonable - I don't think HRC would have done that.

You could argue that every single death is his responsibility because he dismantled Obama's pandemic working group basically for no reason other than spite. How much that would have changed things is impossible to say, unfortunately. I suppose if you just want to blame every single death on him you could go with that, but I'm not comfortable with it.

Arguably any mistake Gov Cuomo made, Trump is off the hook for. So all the deaths in the Northeast we have to chalk up to something that would have happened anyway, minus a few deaths that resulted from the Trumps seizing control of PPEs and auctioning them off to the highest bidder, which wasn't where they were actually needed.

I think the new hump that's emerged is arguably Trump's fault, although I don't know what's going on in California. I guess every death that's occurred outside of New England is a good approximate number to use for deaths that are indisputably Trump's fault.

He damaged and/or ignored virtually every US and world-wide organization - not to mention people - that could have helped the US deal with COVID. And his refusal to allow US scientists to work on planning issues with Chinese scientists could be the most damning move he's made. The damage he's done cannot possibly be overstated. If there's a Devil, he's done exactly what the Devil would have done at virtually every step of the way.

Not to mention, his refusal to have the federal government take control of purchasing and distributing equipment for the states was unconscionable and showed an amazing lack of leadership and organizational ability.

[Wizardspride]

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